Uncertain: Day 5

Word Count: 30,121

Summary of Events:

After a generally sleepless night Joseph got up before dawn and went to the Dirk house to find some clothing that belonged to the children for Deputy to get a scent off of to track. Hazel found him there and determined she wasn't going to let him track the children alone; so she rented the only sidesaddle-trained horse in the town upon which to accompany him. Joseph and Hazel tracked the children all the way to Yates Creek, where Hazel was forced to accept they'd run off, not been kidnapped, before Joseph informed her that coyotes, wolves, bears, and cougars were among the predatory wildlife that might find the children a tasty meal . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“How quickly might the children be noticed by these animals?” Mrs. Chalmers asked, fear even more evident in her voice than it’d been before.

“To be honest Mrs. Chalmers,” Joseph replied. “I don’t know, but it is that time of year when everything’s giving birth, so mamas is on high alert to protect their young from any real or perceived threats, which would suggest to me that we just start looking for bodies.”

Joseph drew out his cigarette case and removed a cylinder that he proceeded to light before taking a deep breath and releasing a cloud of blue-grey smoke with it.

“How insolent of you,” Mrs. Chalmers snapped. “Do you really need to behave so immaturely all because someone from your past has shown up and revealed your secret?”

She did believe Lavern. Joseph snapped his head to look at her.

“I thought everyone around here was smart enough to figure two and two equals four,” he spat.

“I would presume not arithmetically,” Mrs. Chalmers replied.

“I have the accent to be from the area, I’m thirty two years old, obviously there’s the possibility I could’ve — and very likely would’ve — served in the Confederate Army,” Joseph ranted. “Furthermore, although I do not appreciate it, I do not object to anyone’s calling me a Confederate. You’d think they would’ve figured it out!”

“Obviously they didn’t,” Mrs. Chalmers said, sounding haughty.

“The worse thing is the fact that Lavern’s in town,” Joseph complained. “If they hadn’t figured out I’d served in the Confederate Army by this point they didn’t need to know.”

“If you intend to uphold the law, and be the sole representative thereof, you ought to be honest and forthright in all things so as to prevent the citizenry from questioning your authority in matters of the law,” Mrs. Chalmers said primly. “You have failed to do this and are now suffering the consequences.”

Joseph exhaled smoke-laced breath indignantly. “Everyone ought to just be smarter so they could figure out someone not objecting to being called a Confederate probably was one,” he muttered.

“Well apparently the people of Cimarron are simple-minded,” Mrs. Chalmers said.

Turning away, Joseph glared at Yates Creek.

“Of course that shouldn’t come as a surprise,” Mrs. Chalmers said. “They are out here in the West. It’s mostly just your fault for not realising their lack of intelligence, and I guess that suggests you lack intelligence yourself.”

Rage exploded inside of Joseph like a thunderclap and if he wouldn’t have turned to look at Mrs. Chalmers he would’ve seized her shoulder and ploughed his left hand — smouldering cigarette and all — into her face.

Ma, however, had taught him that ladies weren’t to be punched or hit, so he just tapped his spur into Tempest’s side a little more roughly than the gelding deserved and turned the gelding away from Mrs. Chalmers and back toward Cimarron, nestled down below and looking rather quaint-sized from this moderately elevated vantage.